On Thursday, the Sejm passed the Act on social economy. Thanks to the new regulations, social economy will develop and be an important instrument of active social policy.

The solutions adopted in the Act have been developed in cooperation with the social economy community after extensive consultations. The objective of the act will be to support people at risk of social exclusion by creating jobs in social enterprises. It is also to contribute to increasing the availability of social services provided by social economy entities – points out Anita Czerwińska, Deputy Minister of Family and Social Policy and Government Plenipotentiary for Social Economy.

Social enterprises

An important element of the Act are regulations regarding the status of a social enterprise. This status will be available to: social cooperatives, non-governmental organisations, labour cooperatives, cooperatives of disabled and blind people, cooperatives of agricultural production.

Social enterprises will operate for the purpose of reintegration (persons at risk of social exclusion will account for 30% of the employed in total) or for providing social services to the local community.

People, not profits

A social enterprise may not distribute its profit or surplus among its members, employees or shareholders.

The profit generated will be used in particular for the social and professional reintegration of employees at risk of social exclusion, the implementation of social goals or strengthening the enterprise’s potential. The Act also provides for the inclusion of employees in the decision-making process in a social enterprise – says Deputy Minister Anita Czerwińska.

For each person employed in a social enterprise and being at risk of social exclusion, whose employment has been supported by public funds, an individual reintegration plan will be developed and implemented.

In addition, the forms of support provided for social cooperatives will also be extended to include social enterprises. These are, inter alia, one-off subsidies for the creation of jobs for persons referred by the District Labour Offices and financing partial costs of remuneration for such persons.

Refunds and reliefs for social enterprises

Social enterprises will also be able to apply for refunding social security contributions for employees at risk of exclusion. Payments to the State Fund for the Rehabilitation of the Disabled for entities purchasing goods and services from social enterprises will be reduced. A tax relief will also be guaranteed – CIT exemption of income of social enterprises intended for activities in the field of social and professional reintegration. The Act introduces solutions making it easier for social enterprises to participate in public procurement procedures.

The Act also provides for a possibility for the minister in charge of social security to create departmental programmes to support social economy, under which, for example, the creation of social enterprises and the employment of persons at risk of social exclusion will be financed. It is also anticipated to provide social enterprises with access to support services provided at regional level by social economy support centres accredited by the Ministry of Family and Social Policy.

The new regulations also establish the division of coordination tasks concerning the support of social economy. At national level, the minister in charge of social security will be responsible for them. At regional level, this function will be performed by regional self-governments. The Minister and self-governments will be supported by consultative and advisory bodies – respectively, national and regional committees for the development of social economy. In these committees, inter alia, representatives of social economy entities will be represented.

Currently, there are about 100 thousand social economy entities operating across the country. Definitely, the largest group are non-governmental organisations (97%), and the remaining part – cooperatives (about 1.5%) and reintegration units (about 1.5%). In 2019, about 200 thousand persons were employed in social economy entities.